Over 300 Danes have requested an official sex change since Denmark scrapped a law requiring people to be sterilized as part of the sex change procedure before they could be legally recognized as another gender.

Some 304 Danes have already taken advantage of new sex change procedures that allow residents to change their sex by simply filling out a form and then completing a six-month “reflection period”.

The new laws went into effect on September 1st, and according to Metroxpress 67 Danes have already completed the judicial sex change procedure. Another 237 have filed their sex change requests with the Ministry of the Interior.

“The number will rise quite a bit in the coming weeks as a lot of applicants confirm their wish for a judicial sex change at the conclusion of their six-month reflection period,” ministry official Carsten Grage told Metroxpress.

Prior to the law change, Danes had to undergo a physical sex change procedure before obtaining a new gender on their identification papers.

At the time of the change, the government said that the move could be seen as part of an international trend towards "easing the conditions for legal sex change(s)."

Sweden made a similar change in 2013 and a group of Swedish transsexuals who were sterilized to complete their sex changes have since demanded compensation from the government.

Amnesty International said in February that in many European countries people can change legal gender only if they are diagnosed with a mental disorder, undergo medical procedures such as hormone treatments and surgery resulting in sterilisation, and must prove that they are single.

In doing so, these countries were violating the rights of some 1.5 million transgender people estimated to be living across the continent, the organization said.